For decades cars in the US were bought and sold in terms of style with sensational new models unveiled each fall. Mechanically the same configuration lasted about seventy five years -- front engine/rear drive, drum brakes, leaf springs in back. The ignition system changed once or twice but mostly the American automobile remained the same bedsprings with wheels sporting re-sculpted sheet metal every year. The dashboard clock never worked more than a couple of weeks, door handles were made of pot metal and eventually broke off, the seat covers started to fray in the first year and the windows rattled after they’d been rolled up and down a few times. They were sold to consumers by offering stylish new models every year -- two tone paint jobs, towering tail fins and lots of chrome but underneath the same dangerous poorly built chassis rolled on for decades. Mechanical failures became chronic somewhere short of a hundred thousand miles and it became practical as well as cool to trade for a new one. Then the Japanese offered an alternative by building efficient, durable, safer cars that were homely and dependable. Soon car making everywhere started becoming more rational, more responsible, and began to display a little dignity, while everyday citizens got better milage and paid for fewer repairs. The next big thing, it turns out, had us on a treadmill all those years and was really holding us back by just pretending to be new.
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